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Sunday, March 10, 2013

65th Anniversary of McCollum v Board of Education

Rob Boston, AU
Communications Director

Sixty-five years ago today (March 8), the U.S. Supreme Court handed down one of its most important church-state decisions.

The 8-1 ruling in McCollum v. Board of Education
in 1948 ended a practice in the Champaign, Ill., public schools of
allowing ministers to come onto the campus during the day to offer
sectarian instruction.

The decision is important
because it marked the first time the high court ruled that the public
schools could not be in the business of promoting religion to students.
It paved the way for the 1962 and '63 rulings striking down official
school prayer and Bible reading.

Writing for the majority in McCollum, Justice Hugo Black scored "the
use of tax-supported property for religious instruction and the close
cooperation between the school authorities and the religious council in
promoting religious education."

Observed Black, "Here
not only are the State's tax-supported public school buildings used for
the dissemination of religious doctrines. The State also affords
sectarian groups an invaluable aid in that it helps to provide pupils
for their religious classes through use of the State's compulsory public
school machinery. This is not separation of Church and State."